


Learning to Say

by TomatoBookworm



Series: Her Heritage [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 01, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 16:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16876005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomatoBookworm/pseuds/TomatoBookworm
Summary: Skye finally knows something about her heritage, and she wants to learn more.





	Learning to Say

**Author's Note:**

> First scene is set after 1x14 “T.A.H.A.T.I.” and immediately before 1x15 “Yes Men.” Second scene is set after 1x15 “Yes Men” and before 1x16 “End of the Beginning.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Skye noticed motion at the door. She glanced up from her laptop and saw Coulson standing by the entrance. She pulled out her earbuds.

 

“Hi A.C.,” Skye said. “Checking to see if I’ve died of boredom yet?”

 

“It’s a little too soon for death jokes,” Coulson responded. “Have to wait a bit to really get the punchline across. Trust me, I would know.”

 

“You are the boss,” Skye said. She looked at Coulson. He seemed normal, but he must have a million other things on his plate aside from dropping in on her. “So, what’s up? New missions, exciting projects, anything to get me out of here?”

 

“Simmons was very clear that you are not to leave the medical bay and I agree with her,” Coulson said. “I just wanted to see how you are doing.”

 

“Can’t complain,” Skye said. “Whatever miracle drug you guys gave me, it’s doing an awesome job. I don’t even feel any pain from the gunshot wound anymore. Right now it’s just my brain that’s hurting from staring at these walls.”

 

“I am sure you will find something to occupy yourself with,” Coulson said. He nodded at the laptop. “Anything new on the Internet?”

 

“Actually, I am trying to learn Mandarin,” Skye said. She felt a little self-conscious in admitting it, but Coulson was the only one who would understand. “You said that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents found me in Hunan, right? So, I’ve figured chances are at least one of my parents is Chinese. Now before you say anything, I know there’s this whole ‘death follows me’ thing, and I am not going to actively do anything that could endanger the team. I just figured, someday, maybe I will come across someone who thinks I look familiar, and I don’t want language to be a barrier.”

 

“I understand,” Coulson said gently. “How’s it coming along?”

 

“More difficult than you’d expect,” Skye said. She tried to give a shrug but the monitors still attached to her body made the motion difficult. “For some reason, I can’t find a single online tutorial that teaches you to say, ‘have you ever met anyone who looks like me before?’”

 

“Why don’t you ask May for help?” Coulson asked.

 

“Really Coulson?” Skye raised her eyebrow. “Just because someone is Asian does not mean she automatically speaks an Asian language. Do you have any idea how many times people just assumed I can speak Chinese, Japanese, or Korean?”

 

“Believe it or not, I’ve actually heard this exact same speech from May before,” Coulson said. He smirked at her. “I am suggesting you ask for May’s help because I know for a fact that she speaks Mandarin fluently.”

 

“Oh,” Skye said. She mulled over the idea. “You don’t think she would mind teaching me? She’s not exactly the most warm and fuzzy person on this team.”

 

“You won’t know until you ask,” Coulson said.

 

******

 

“Hey May? Are you busy right now or can I talk to you for a second?” Skye asked as she poked her head into the cockpit.

 

May glanced at her from the rear view mirror but didn’t say anything. Skye took the silence as permission to proceed, so she sat down beside the older agent.

 

“So, I was talking to Coulson the other day,” Skye started. She was more nervous than she should be. It was a simple request, but she still couldn’t read May very well. “You know, after I recovered from getting shot, but Simmons was still keeping me locked up in the medical bay? I was really bored and thought I would start learning Mandarin, but I wasn’t making much progress. Coulson said you speak Mandarin and maybe you could help?”

 

“Why?” May asked.

 

“Um, I guess because we are teammates?” Skye said. “But yeah, it’s a stupid thing to ask. I don’t want to take up your time. Just thought I’d check because Coulson suggested it, you know?”

 

“I mean, why do you want to learn Mandarin?” May clarified.

 

“Oh!” Skye said. She glanced out at the open air before her. “You and Coulson went to see Agent Lumley together. You know S.H.I.E.L.D. found me in China. So I figured, why not learn Chinese? Might be cool to visit one day. Maybe some old lady will see me and say, ‘hey, you look like my daughter who left home 25 years ago with a baby.’ I mean, you never know, right?”

 

“China is a big place,” May said.

 

”Yeah, but at least it’s smaller than the entire Asia,” Skye said. “I didn’t know what I was growing up. The nuns just said I looked ‘mixed, maybe Asian.’ There was one foster family that thought I have East Asian ancestry. The husband and the wife did a missionary tour in South Korea. I’ve tried to learn Chinese, Japanese, and Korean before, but it was too much all at once. Now I only have to deal with one language and one country, that’s narrowing the field a lot already.”

 

“An hour lesson every day, plus whatever time you have to review,” May said.

 

“Sorry?”

 

“I will teach you Mandarin for an hour every day,” May elaborated. “You will have to find time on your own to study as well. The U.S. State Department estimates it takes 2200 hours of study for a native English speaker to become fluent in Mandarin. You will need more time than that since you don’t use Chinese in your daily life, and there will be periods when we halt the lesson for missions, but this will be a start.”

 

“Oh my God, thank you!” Skye said. She reached out to hug the other agent and paused at May’s stare. She waved her arm around. “High five? No? Well, thank you. This means a lot to me. Xie xie?”

 

“We definitely need to work on your pronunciation,” May replied.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Xie xie: Thank you in Mandarin. 
> 
> There are many different Chinese dialects. Mandarin is the official language in China and hence when people say they want to learn Chinese, they usually mean Mandarin.
> 
> U.S. State Department really does publish a list of languages and the number of hours it would take a native English speaker to achieve fluency in each language. The definition of fluency here is to be able to conduct diplomatic conversations and read/write political essays, which is more than what Skye is looking for, but May is not going to set the bar low. 
> 
> This started out as the beginning to a long one shot, but I’ve decided to split the fic into a two-part series as the rest of the story is too different in tone.


End file.
